The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-23
THE MAKING OF WINES.
The Imported Adulteration from France CoE;-
pared with the Pure Product Of America.

Col. j. A. Brideland, who was for several
years consul at Havre, France. possesses consid.
cradle information concerning wine and grape
culture. Every gentleman who remains any
time in France" said the Colonel, obtains soma
information regarding grape culture, and the
manufacture of wines Besides, as consul, IL
was directly in my line of duty to inform myself.
In addition to that, in asocial and domestic way.
wine enters largely into everyday life. You
rarely see any one there sit down to dinner
or even to breakfast without one or mora
kinds of wine. 1t Is even the case that people
who are not in affluen. circumstances will offer
you two or three kinds Of good wines at their
dinner-table. have been at dinners that would
begin with good glass of sherry, with French
oysters, which are. by the way, not at all to be
compared with our own oysters; sauterne with
soup; claret, with joints; burgundy. with game:
champagne with dessert, and port as a finish
'Where the best wines made9" was asked.
''Chateau Lafitte is very small estate, but
the wines made there are very hne and are any
where from Fifty to one hundred years old. The
soil is thoroughly mpregnated with leaves and
other substances dropping from the vines.
Chateau Margeaux is about the same thing, as is
also Chateau Laouem These three estates pro-
duce the best Bordeaux or high grade of claret
made in the world
about what are those wines worth in
Franceq
II do not suppose bottle of any one of them
of course, mean genuine-has been sold for
less than 80 francs about ST, IN thirty years
These brands are sold all over the United States.
but they are fraudulent as it is rare, indeed.
as the nobility and wealthy men of that country
drink about all of 1t. 1t is ia
vor to get the genuine at any price.
The growth of grapes in France depends. Of
n
the grapes grown in Champagne are nearly all
made into the wine of that name, and leading
brands, such Pommery Sec, Veuve Cliquot,
and in fact most other high grades, are produced
| that have less merit; otherwise they could not
| supply the demand There not enough
| grapes grown there now to supply wines for
French consumption, yet France IS exporting
| more wines than ever before. She has all the
/ tricks of the trade. There is no doubt about
| that The grapes grown in Cognac are almost
| entirely worked into Cognac brandy, but there
| is not one-tenth of the brandy called Cognac
that we import into this country that is genuine
| Much of the so-called Cognac is made from
Spanish Wines aided by American pure
/ spirits-in other words. alcohol. There ia
day, that steamers plying between Fren b
| ana Spanish ports do not return from Spanish
| ports with full cargoes of common Spanish wines
| to be manipulated by French manufacturers.
/ understand we are now shipping our California
| wines, cop6ensed, to France ia large quantities
| These they will manipulate with their own wines
| in their own manner, and much of it will return
| to us paying duty as perfectly pure French wine.
| But to prove the aduiteraton of wines in France,
| some time ago the chief of the Paris octroi re-
| ported officially the chemical test OF all wines
| going into Paris. and said that 80 per cert even
of those for Partisan consumption were not pure
ssHave you paid any attention to our American
wines2
eyes; my attention was called to the wines Of
| ST. Louis house, Missouri wines. was sent
l CD, Gxra cyoip IN Ha0p
sent some of it to General Noyes, then our min.
| lister at Paris, with the request that he would
have the labels taken off the bottles and get the
chief chemist of Paris to analyze it and make q
| report General Noyes complied with the re-
Quest and in about four weeks he forwarded
| me q certificate from the chemist,
stating that the wine was perfectly pure
grape juice, without adulteration of ANY
kind, had ID per cent alcoho. and was medium
| in quality This certificate considered import
tant, knowing, as did, that wine Is one OF the
| greatest sources OF revenue in France, to thus
| officially indorse American wine l believe
now that the best manufacturers Of champagne
and still wines in this country are making wines
i.purer and better than a stranger can possibly
buy in France at any reasonable price. Qut
American wines, of course. are new, because
when making is new enterprise with u.s. 1t il
my opinion that more than one-half of north;
eastern Virginia, if grapes continue to be cult.
' waited there as they now are, is capable OF fur'
nishing us any quantity of superior wines. As
for southern Ohio and southern Indiana, it is bes
yond question that in the years TO come they will
{ supply quantities of good wine. In California,
) the grape crop is already almost the leading
crop of the State"